Art News. Vasari Codex

article policy schedule Apr 22, 2026 visibility 14 link 2 artists

A Think Tank and a Foundation Team Up On $1 M. in Accelerator Grants for Museum and Performing Arts Leaders—Timothée Chalamet Be Damned

A think tank and a philanthropic foundation have launched a $1 million accelerator grant program for museum and performing arts leaders. The initiative, a partnership between Remuseum (an initiative of Crystal Bridges Museum) and the Doris Duke Foundation, will award up to ten $100,000 grants and provide a year-long residency program to help leaders develop innovative strategies to boost relevance and financial stability.

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article news schedule Apr 17, 2026 visibility 20 link 6 artists

Olivia Rodrigo’s New Music Video Is a Dizzying Romp Through Versailles

Pop star Olivia Rodrigo has released the music video for her new single "Drop Dead," filmed on location at the Palace of Versailles. Directed by Petra Collins, the production marks the first time a music video has been granted permission to film inside the palace's royal apartments, including the Queen's Bedroom and the Grand Couvert Antechamber. The video features Rodrigo performing alongside historic masterpieces, such as Pierre Mignard’s 17th-century tapestry "Apollo and the Muses on Mount Parnassus."

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 13, 2026 visibility 18 link 1 artist, 1 gallery

frances mcdormand suzanne bocanegra hauser and wirth 1234762595

Actor Frances McDormand and performance artist Suzanne Bocanegra have debuted a new iteration of their multi-sensory installation, 'CRADLED', at Hauser & Wirth’s downtown Los Angeles location. Developed in collaboration with the Shaker Museum, the exhibition features adult-sized cradles and Shaker furniture designed for care and infirmity. The performance-based installation explores themes of mortality, loneliness, and communal care through the lens of Shaker craft and spiritual tradition.

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person people schedule Apr 10, 2026 visibility 14 link 1 artist

David Geffen Settles Divorce With David Armstrong After Bitter Legal Fight

Billionaire art collector and entertainment mogul David Geffen has reached a private settlement with his estranged husband, David Armstrong, ending a contentious legal battle. The divorce proceedings gained significant public attention due to the absence of a prenuptial agreement and serious allegations of exploitation and psychological manipulation leveled by Armstrong. While the financial terms remain confidential, the settlement concludes months of litigation over spousal support and asset division following their two-year marriage.

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article news schedule Apr 7, 2026 visibility 31 link 3 artists, 3 galleries

New York Gallery The Hole Sued Over Back Rent, Accused of Not Paying Artists and Workers

The Hole, a prominent New York-based contemporary art gallery, is facing multiple lawsuits and allegations of financial instability. Legal filings from landlords at both its Bowery and Tribeca locations indicate significant rent arrears totaling over $180,000, alongside unpaid real estate taxes. Founder Kathy Grayson confirmed the closure of the gallery’s Los Angeles outpost, attributing the crisis to a sharp decline in sales starting in late 2023 and a destabilizing period of rapid expansion.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 4, 2026 visibility 20 link 1 artist

Gisela Colón on Puerto Rico, Bad Bunny, and the Power Beneath the Island

Artist Gisela Colón is the subject of two concurrent solo exhibitions: "Radiant Earth" at the Bruce Museum in Connecticut and "The Mountain, The Monolith" at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico. This dual presentation marks a significant career milestone and a homecoming for the Puerto Rican-born artist, who has built an international profile over the past decade with installations from Desert X AlUla to sites near the Pyramids of Giza.

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article news schedule Mar 9, 2026 visibility 18 link 2 artists

michael govan lacma zumthor building vanity fair interview 1234776032

Michael Govan, director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), has broken his silence regarding the museum’s controversial new David Geffen Galleries in an interview with Vanity Fair. The $720 million structure, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Peter Zumthor, is scheduled to open next month following years of heated debate over its unconventional design, the demolition of previous museum buildings, and escalating costs. Govan defended the project’s horizontal, single-floor layout as a necessary evolution for the 21st-century museum, moving away from traditional geographic and chronological hierarchies.

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article news schedule Jan 15, 2026 visibility 17 link 3 artists

museo del prado visitor numbers 1234770012

Museo del Prado director Miguel Falomir announced at a press conference unveiling the museum's 2026 exhibition schedule that the institution does not need more visitors, stating it is comfortable with 3.5 million annual visitors and fears becoming "over-saturated." Falomir cited concerns about circulation around iconic works like Velázquez's *Las Meninas* and Bosch's *The Garden of Earthly Delights*, and emphasized improving visitor experience through optimizing entrances, reducing group sizes, and enforcing photography bans. The Prado, last expanded in 2007, is significantly smaller than the Louvre, which topped 2024 visitor figures with 8.7 million.

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museum exhibitions schedule Dec 19, 2025 visibility 13 link 2 artists

las vegas museum of art francis kere designs 2731855

The Las Vegas Museum of Art (LVMA) has unveiled architectural designs by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Francis Kéré for its first standalone museum, a 60,000-square-foot building at Symphony Park in downtown Las Vegas. The design incorporates local stone, baobab trees, and a canopy for shade, drawing inspiration from the Mojave Desert and the city's culture, with a central staircase evoking a canyon. The museum, supported by a land donation from the city and a partnership with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), has raised over half of its $200 million goal and is slated to open in 2029.

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person people schedule Dec 19, 2025 visibility 17 link 4 artists

2026 ruth awards recipients yuji agematsuwill rawls 1234767581

The Ruth Foundation for the Arts has named five artists as recipients of its 2026 Ruth Awards: Yuji Agematsu, Ranu Mukherjee, Will Rawls, Ellen Sebastian Chang, and Anna Martine Whitehead. Each winner receives an unrestricted $100,000 grant disbursed over two years. The artists work across diverse media—from Agematsu's miniature street-detritus sculptures and Rawls's multidisciplinary choreography to Mukherjee's painting and film installations, Sebastian Chang's decades-spanning theater and film work, and Whitehead's performance art. The awards are open to artists across North America and are now in their third year.

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article news schedule Dec 17, 2025 visibility 7 link 3 artists

stahl house los angeles for sale 2730179

The Stahl House, the iconic midcentury modern home in the Hollywood Hills also known as Case Study House No. 22, has been listed for sale for the first time in its 65-year history. The property, designed by architect Pierre Koenig and immortalized in a famous photograph by Julius Shulman, is priced at $25 million. Siblings Shari and Bruce Stahl, who grew up in the house, are selling it due to the challenges of maintaining it as they age. The home was originally built for $37,651 as part of Arts and Architecture magazine's Case Study program and remains the only one in the program still under original family ownership.

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trending_up market schedule Dec 5, 2025 visibility 11 link 1 artist, 2 galleries

hauser wirth to open sicily location in historic palazzo 1234765458

Hauser & Wirth has announced plans to open its first Italian location in Palermo, Sicily, housed in the historic Palazzo Forcella De Seta. The gallery purchased roughly 20,000 square feet of the neo-Gothic palace, which previously served as a venue for Manifesta 12 in 2018 and was once home to Galleria Mediterranea, the city’s first private art gallery. The deal closed in November, but the local government and Italy’s Ministry of Culture retain a 60-day right of public pre-emption due to the building’s status as a historic monument. If that right is not exercised, work could begin in 2026, with completion expected by 2030.

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person people schedule Nov 26, 2025 visibility 14 link 5 artists

pulitzer critic christopher knight retires los angeles times 1234763888

Christopher Knight, the Pulitzer Prize-winning art critic for the Los Angeles Times, is retiring after a 45-year career in criticism, including 36 years at the newspaper. His final day is Friday. Knight, one of the few remaining full-time art critics in American journalism, was praised by colleagues for his encyclopedic knowledge and razor-sharp assessments. He won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 2020, notably for a series of articles that harshly critiqued the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's (LACMA) proposed redesign by architect Peter Zumthor. He also received a lifetime achievement award from the Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation in 2020, and the College Art Association's Frank Jewett Mather Award in 1997. Before his journalism career, Knight worked as a curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and consulted for the Lannan Foundation and the Smithsonian Institution's Archives of American Art.

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gavel restitution schedule Nov 20, 2025 visibility 11 link 2 artists

the met returns historic buddhist painting to korea 2715943

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has returned a late-18th century Buddhist painting, *The Tenth King of Hell* (1798), to the Sinheungsa Temple in Sokcho, Gangwon Province, South Korea. The work is believed to have been taken by U.S. troops during the Korean War. The repatriation was celebrated at a ceremony in Seoul attended by Met Director and CEO Max Hollein, Korean government officials, and religious leaders. The painting is part of a larger series of ten scrolls depicting the Ten Kings of the Underworld; three remain abroad, while six others previously at LACMA have already been returned.

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gavel restitution schedule Nov 14, 2025 visibility 11 link 2 artists

met repatriates painting korea buddhist temple korean war 1234761860

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has returned an 18th-century Korean painting, *The Tenth King of Hell* (1798), to Sinheungsa Temple in Sokcho, South Korea. The work, part of a ten-panel series called *Siwangdo* depicting kings of the afterlife, was illicitly taken from the temple in 1954 during the U.S. military presence after the Korean War. The Met purchased the painting in 2007 from a collector via an LLC linked to Bonhams’s Chinese art head. The repatriation was coordinated with the Sokcho Committee for the Return of Cultural Heritage and the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism. Six other panels were previously returned by LACMA in 2020; three remain abroad.

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article news schedule Nov 6, 2025 visibility 13 link 1 artist

lacma declines to voluntarily recognize union formed by hundreds of workers 1234760363

Hundreds of staff at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) voted to form a union, LACMA United, in association with AFSCME Cultural Workers United District Council 36, calling for higher wages, better benefits, and greater transparency. LACMA leadership declined to voluntarily recognize the union, opting instead for a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election, which is currently paused due to the federal government shutdown, effectively delaying the unionization effort. The union has filed with the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB), asserting its status as public sector employees.

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article news schedule Oct 29, 2025 visibility 18 link 2 artists

lacma employees unionization effort 1234759404

Employees at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) have formed a union called LACMA United in association with AFSCME Cultural Workers United District Council 36. In a letter dated October 29 addressed to museum leadership, a supermajority of eligible staff across departments requested voluntary recognition by November 5, citing wages that have not kept up with the rising cost of living and the need for fairer compensation, expanded benefits, and greater transparency. The effort comes ahead of the opening of LACMA's new Peter Zumthor–designed David Geffen Galleries, scheduled for next April.

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candle obituary schedule Oct 29, 2025 visibility 17 link 3 artists

artist jackie ferrara died by assisted suicide at 95 in switzerland 1234759313

Jackie Ferrara, a New York-based artist known for her stacked-wood sculptures, died by physician-assisted suicide in Basel, Switzerland, on October 22 at age 95. She told the New York Times she had fallen twice in the past year and did not want to be dependent on anyone. Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland even for those who are not terminally ill.

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article news schedule Oct 28, 2025 visibility 16 link 6 artists

curators museum directors offer support in letter to louvre 1234758931

Fifty-seven curators and museum directors, including Christophe Cherix of MoMA and Michael Govan of LACMA, signed an open letter published by Le Monde expressing solidarity with Louvre director Laurence des Cars following the theft of the museum's crown jewels. The letter emphasizes that museums are not immune to global violence and that such thefts represent a profound fear for museum professionals, while reaffirming that museums must remain open and accessible despite security risks.

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person people schedule Jul 25, 2025 visibility 13 link 2 artists

johanna burton director ica philadelphia departs moca la 1234748188

Johanna Burton, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles, has been appointed the next director of the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) Philadelphia, effective November 1. She succeeds Zoë Ryan, who left in January to lead the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. Burton, who joined MOCA in 2021 after leading the Wexner Center for the Arts, stabilized the institution following a period of turmoil, reinstating its annual gala, securing major gifts, and hiring senior curator Clara Kim.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jul 22, 2025 visibility 13 link 8 artists

liz collins motherlode 2667590

The RISD Museum in Providence has opened "Liz Collins: Motherlode," the first U.S. survey dedicated to fiber and textile artist Liz Collins. Curated by Kate Irvin, the exhibition spans Collins's multi-decade career, from her early fashion label to her recent cross-disciplinary experiments, and includes works like "Cosmic Explosion" (2008–18). Collins, a double RISD graduate and former professor there, describes the show as a homecoming rooted in her deep ties to the school and museum.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 30, 2025 visibility 12 link 1 artist

sandy rodriguez ringling museum of art exhibition 1234746496

Los Angeles-based artist and researcher Sandy Rodriguez has opened her most ambitious exhibition to date, "Currents of Resistance," at the Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida, running through August 10. The centerpiece is "Resistance Map of the Gulf of Mexico" (2025), a 94.5-inch amate paper map from her ongoing "Codex Rodriguez-Mondragón" series. Rodriguez creates her own pigments from foraged minerals and botanical specimens, and uses handmade amate bark paper from San Pablito, Mexico, a sacred Mesoamerican material once outlawed during the colonial era. The map layers 500 years of cartographic tradition with historic and contemporary acts of resistance, including the Mixtón War, the Calusa resistance, and modern police violence in New Orleans. For this exhibition, she also introduced ocean water from the Gulf of Mexico to thin her pigments, referencing climate change as ongoing colonial aggression.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 22, 2025 visibility 20 link 6 artists

louise bonnet swiss institute site santa fe 1234743115

Louise Bonnet, a Los Angeles-based painter known for her cartoonish yet sophisticated depictions of the female nude, discusses her latest work ahead of two major exhibitions. Her two-person show with Elizabeth King, titled "De Anima," opens at the Swiss Institute in New York, focusing on shared approaches to figuration that balance objecthood and liveliness. Bonnet also created a new series for the next edition of the SITE Santa Fe International biennial, opening in June. In an interview with ARTnews editor Emily Watlington, Bonnet explains her shift to tighter cropped compositions emphasizing routine gestures like tying shoelaces or fastening bras, inspired by World War II British spies and films like Rosemary's Baby.

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article policy schedule Apr 30, 2025 visibility 14 link 1 artist

mellon foundation state arts councils emergency grants 2638071

The Mellon Foundation is providing $15 million in emergency grants to the Federation of State Humanities Councils, which will distribute the funds to all 56 state and jurisdictional humanities councils across the U.S. This comes after the Trump administration revoked $65 million in grants promised by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), redirected to the National Garden of American Heroes. The administration also terminated over 1,000 NEH grants and placed about 80 percent of NEH staff on paid administrative leave following a visit from Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Many state councils now face potential closure or severe program cuts.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 24, 2025 visibility 10 link 1 artist

ei arakawa nash japan 2026 venice biennale pavilion 1234739727

Ei Arakawa-Nash, a Los Angeles–based performance artist, has been selected to represent Japan at the 2026 Venice Biennale, as announced by the Japan Foundation. He will create a new installation for the Japan Pavilion that explores his perspective as a queer parent of newborn twins, aiming to “dissect nationalism and patriarchy.” Arakawa-Nash, who gave up his Japanese nationality a few years ago, draws on post-war avant-garde movements like Gutai and Tokyo Fluxus, and his recent works include a large-scale participatory performance at Tate Modern's Turbine Hall in 2021.

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article culture schedule Feb 12, 2026 visibility 20 link 12 artists

art dasha zhukova ray real estate

Dasha Zhukova, the former fashion designer, magazine publisher, and museum founder, has launched a new real estate development company called Ray. Its first project, Ray Harlem, is a 21-story residential building on Fifth Avenue in Harlem, built in collaboration with the National Black Theatre (NBT). The development replaces NBT's original building and integrates a 27,000-square-foot theater as its centerpiece, with 222 apartments above, a quarter of which were offered through an affordable housing lottery. The building features site-specific commissioned artworks by emerging Black artists such as Jurell Cayetano, Freddy Carrasco, Nikko Washington, and Ellon Gibbs, and was designed by Frida Escobedo Studio with Handel Architects.

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person people schedule Dec 2, 2025 visibility 17 link 9 artists, 2 galleries

art lauren quin young artist

Pace Gallery announced representation of Los Angeles-based painter Lauren Quin in August 2024, following a solo show of her manic, neon-tinged abstractions at its downtown offshoot 125 Newbury. Quin, age 33, is slated for a solo exhibition at Pace's Los Angeles outpost opening in January. In an interview, she discusses her creative process, the struggle behind works like "Cub Cross," and her dream of building a sauna gallery in her backyard.

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trending_up market schedule Nov 24, 2025 visibility 24 link 13 artists

art auction new york record breaking

Gustav Klimt's *Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer* (1914-16) sold for $236.4 million at Sotheby's on November 18, becoming the second-most expensive painting ever sold at auction and the most expensive work ever sold by the house. The sale was part of New York's marquee November auctions, which generated over $2 billion in a single week—more than 50 percent above last year's total—driven by high-profile estates including that of cosmetics heir Leonard A. Lauder. Other notable sales included Mark Rothko's *No. 31 (Yellow Stripe)* for $62.2 million at Christie's, Marc Chagall's *Le songe du Roi David* for $26.5 million, and Frida Kahlo's *El sueño (La cama)* for $55 million, setting a new record for the artist and the highest sum for a work by a female artist at auction. Phillips also sold a juvenile Triceratops skeleton named CERA for $5.4 million.

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article news schedule Jul 8, 2025 visibility 16 link 8 artists, 8 galleries

tim blum gallery closure

Tim Blum, co-founder of the influential Los Angeles gallery Blum & Poe, announced the closure of the gallery last week. Blum, who took over after Jeff Poe left the business in 2023, cited personal burnout and a system-wide problem of over-expansion as reasons for the decision. In an interview with CULTURED editor-in-chief Sarah Harrelson, Blum reflected on his 35-year career, his role in building LA into an art-market capital, and his plans to stay involved in the art world in a new, alternative form.

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candle obituary schedule Apr 13, 2026 source 2 sources visibility 21 link 3 artists, 1 gallery

Painter Celeste Dupuy-Spencer dies at 46.

The American painter Celeste Dupuy-Spencer has passed away at the age of 46 at her home in Los Angeles. Her gallery, Jeffrey Deitch, confirmed the news of her death but did not specify a cause. The announcement comes just weeks before a scheduled solo exhibition of her recent work, which is still set to open at the gallery’s Los Angeles location on April 17.

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